Last Night DIY New Year's meeting (12/11)

I support what you all have (and are) doing, but can we be real about how exactly these types of events happen, please? I'll all for spontaneous, unorganized actions, but this event isn't one of 'em. It's still something empowering, but just in a different way than you all frame it.

What I mean:

You say: "Last Night is a decentralized, collective, spontaneous, open celebration. Decentralized means there is no director, no planning, committee, no one's in charge. Collective means we do it together. Spontaneous because we are not asking for permits and permission."

How can you say that an event is 'spontaneous' at the same time as you are planning for it? I don't see 'planning' as a negative thing or necessarily even hierarchical, but an integral part of making social change happen - you gotta organize. 'Spontaneous' events have their place in a movement, but you can't struggle for the long-haul without getting together, strategizing and organizing.

What I see is a mixing of desire and reality. You all have a desire (which is great) to have an event automatically just happen in a beautiful, decentralized manner. But you also know that if an event is gonna happen somewhat close to the way you want it, you need to plan it, hence your oddly-worded "Un-Organizing" meetings.

I think it's more empowering for the community if we're completely honest about how things are happening and the desires of the organizers. Make it clear that there IS a specific group (albeit very open) that is doing some of the planning for the event. You can make it very clear what this group is doing and what they're not. I.E. you're just trying to urge people to get themselves together, do publicity, etc., but not 'run' the event. Make your expections of yourselves and the community clear - that's the transparency needed for any true non-hierarchical organizing.

I think what you all are doing is great, but I don't want people to look at an event like Last Night DIY and think that no work goes into these sorts of things. Folks should have faith in the community, but also the knowledge of what needs to happen to make a stellar event so that, hopefully, in the future, they can organize their own events.

That siad, keep up the good work. I'll see ya on New Years!

Trash Orchestra is setting aside an afternoon to build instruments.  You are invited.

Fight tyranny!  Resist oppression! See the world! Help build...

We are a marching percussion band – a bone-shaking
recycled orchestra – a superhero sonic force of
resistance to be reckoned with

We make percussion on tuned cans, hubcaps and barrels,  drums, pieces of sheet metal, and homemade oddities.

If you are full of rebellious insolence and music in your heart, we need you. Bring your courage, your passion, your righteous anger, your instruments, recycled or otherwise.

Join us at our Build Day!
3 pm to 7 pm at the Bike Church
703 Pacific Ave

We are preparing the orchestra to march in the upcoming Last Night DIY parade.

Bring materials for making instruments: scrap metal, padding, durable cloth, duct tape, bailing wire, pots, pans, drumstix, broom handles, buckets, barrels, copper tubing, PVC pipe, bits of resonant metal, copper  and steel pipe, bamboo, rope, barrels, buckets, and whatever else speaks to you.  (Be prepared to take anything unclaimed away with you)  Bring your courage, your passion, your righteous anger.




Email: trash@thespoon.com
Web: http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/trashorchestra
Phone: 831.335.3109

Supporter, you raise an important question, that of how the parade can be spontaneous when there are planning meetings going on. I'd like to offer some of my thoughts on the issue, seeing as no one else has.

I've had some face to face conversations (one of the best ways to develop one's thoughts) with some of the organizers of the Last Night parade, and one of the phrases that I've heard several of them use in describing their role is that "we are building a framework for people to act within." Or more accurately, manipulating a situation (new year's celebration) that would not exist were it not for Tradition, cultural indoctrination, media propaganda, and lately the police state.

Out of what was a prison, we create a "framework" that could be compared to the wigwam of sticks that one makes when creating a fire: the structure allows people to act with more freedom, and to break past its boundaries to create something beautiful. The "organization" behind the parade is adaptable, ephemeral, autonomous, and indeed, meant to be burnt in the celebration. It is not a vanguard that leads the way, nor the Peace Police that tells people what they can and can't do, nor the banal activist group that limits everyone to their lowest-common-denominator signs, chants, and tactics. It is merely one of the forces contributing towards a *momentum* of free-acting individuals aiming to joy and happiness in their own lives in the here and now, and by extention, in the world around them. The lack of permit is not what makes Last Night spontaneous (for that's an incredibly flimsy use of the word), it is the fact that for once, you'll be in a situation where you are ABLE to act spontaneously, and that it is up to you to act according to your own desires if you wish for them to be realized.

While using the word "spontaneous" in foresight has self-contradictory connotations that you've pointed out, I think that what the parade is is an unchecked momentum of spontaneous and autonomous actions, and thus the word can be fairly applied to the Last Night DIY parade. That's not to say that your question has been "answered;" it should be a constant thought in the minds of the organizers. Thanks for raising the issue, it is a necessary discussion to have.